He also is chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor, Health and Social Services as well as a member of the corporations committee.

During a legislative committee meeting, Byrd, a Democrat and the only African American in the Legislature, asked whether the state is part of the solution or is part of Nike Sportswear Windrunner Winterized Qs Men's Jacket the problem.

resistance to Obamacare in a number of states in the South and Midwest is unparalleled in the nearly 50 years since the civil rights movement.

That's the key difference, Harkness wrote.

"This isn't so much a policy disagreement about health care as it is a no holds barred war for the future direction of domestic policy in the country," he added.

The state is now stuck with the law which he claims is doing considerable harm to insurance costs.

During the civil rights movement, political leaders in some states concentrated on resisting desegregation.

Sen Charles Scott, R Casper, is a staunch opponent of Obamacare but not of health care reform.

also ran a full page newspaper ad explaining the law to citizens.

Harkness quotes Paul Posner, a federalism scholar at George Mason University, who agrees that the current tension between the states and the feds mirrors the 1960s, but this time, he notes, it's "to the states' fiscal detriment."

Rep. Jim Byrd tossed out a barbed question this week about the state's role in Obamacare.

"While passive resistance is not unprecedented," Posner says, "several states have gone beyond that to become active resisters to the health reform law."

He noted his committee will be looking at Medicaid expansion.

"Now on a broad array of issues, the states' rights movement is highly organized, heavily funded and uncompromising," he wrote. "In some cases, its tactics verge on sabotage of federal efforts.

The query was aimed at Wyoming Insurance Commissioner Tom Hirsig, who had given a summary of the Affordable Care Act to the Joint Interim Committee on Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions.

Today, 21 states have refused to expand their Medicaid systems to accommodate new enrollees even though the feds are paying all of the costs for the first three years, and 34 have refused to operate their own online insurance exchanges.

Money is overshadowed by ideology and the need for state leaders to make a statement about their positions.

There are other issues involved in the pushback against the federal government including immigration, environmental rules, common education standards, gay marriage, abortion and guns.